


Love You Anyways

by Bullheaded25



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Stark reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 18:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11295942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bullheaded25/pseuds/Bullheaded25
Summary: Inspired by a gifset that was originally posted by lordsnow on tumblr. Arya returns home to Winterfell and is nervous to tell Jon what she has been through and done since leaving Winterfell as a child. Jon promises that he will love her no matter what.





	Love You Anyways

“Queen Daenerys has arrived at Dragonstone, Your Grace.”

Jon nodded in acknowledgement of what Ser Davos had said, but did not say anything. Davos, Tormund and Jon sat in the small council chamber that was in Winterfell. Jon knew that soon, the three of them would be leaving Winterfell with a small number of soldiers and reach Dragonstone to persuade the Mother of Dragons to join their cause; that Winter has come and if she wanted to rule the Seven Kingdoms the White Walkers would have to be defeated. 

They hoped that it would not be too difficult to persuade her, and that it would not take too long. Jon was more worried about the conversation he would have to have with Sansa about leaving. He had mentioned leaving to meet the Queen once she had arrived in Westeros the previous week, and she was not to keen on the idea. She feared that he would not return, and of what if something happened to him or to Winterfell while he was gone. 

Jon agreed that he did not want to leave Winterfell, and he did not want to leave Sansa alone. 

“I’ll have Brienne,” she had said. Jon could tell she was angry, her face had gone emotionless. 

Silence in the chamber was broke by quick footsteps against the stone floor in the corridor. The three men looked towards the door before there was a feverish knock and it swung open. 

“Your Grace,” the young boy gasped, out of breath. He worked in the stables, Jon thought to himself, his heart racing. “I am so very sorry, Your Grace -”

“What is it?” Jon asked him, standing up. His hand fell to his hilt.

“Someone just arrived,” he said, still winded slightly from his sprint. “Someone, Your Grace, that calls herself Arya Underfoot.”

Jon’s heart jumped into his throat and before he could say anything, or before he could get a clear thought through his head, he was out of the room and running down the corridor toward the yard. He could hear his pulse in his ears, and he could distinctly hear Davos, Tormund, and the young stable boy behind him. When Jon reached the entrance to the yard, he broke apart the tiltyard and stopped in the middle of the path. 

He saw who must be Arya. The gangling little girl he had once known with knotted hair and torn clothes and scraped knees had been replaced with a slender and short woman. Arya had his hair, dark and thick and curly, and it was down to her shoulders. Her long face was more thin than before and her cheekbones showing made her look much more feminine. She had a couple of scars along one side of her face that Jon could see from his distance away and he soaked her appearance in. She was wearing mixed leathers that were too big and, furs and her breeches were a worn green color. Of course she would dress like a boy, she was Arya afterall. He smiled and felt his eyes burn at the sight of her. Arya was the one person he had so desperately wanted to see ever since he left Winterfell as a young boy. 

Arya was slowly turning in a circle, taking in all of Winterfell around her and Jon looked around for a brief second too. It hardly looked the same form when they were children. Some parts were completely gone, others half built and half gone, and some walls and rooms were newly rebuilt. Jon returned his gaze to his youngest sister and the sun caught the steal that hung from her waist. It was the small sword he had given her, and he felt a tear run down his cheek just as Arya’s eyes fell on him. 

Her eyes were glossy and her jaw fell slack when she saw him. He grinned at her, and she returned it as tears spilled down her face. Jon began to to approach her with long and quick strides. Arya ran toward him and within seconds, she had flung herself into Jon’s awaiting arms. Jon collapsed to his knees in the middle of the yard and he could feel everyone’s eyes upon him. But there was not a single reason for Jon to care about any of them. His little sister was home, home in his arms. She was safe, after all this time. And Jon did not ever want to let her go.

“You’re safe,” he whispered to her, holding her head to him and squeezing her small body into his own. He had wanted to tell her that for so long now. 

Arya was sobbing into his shoulder, holding on to him as if her life depended on it. A sob wracked through Jon’s body and his body rocked back and forth a few times.

“I’ve missed you,” she managed to say to him quietly. “I have missed you so fucking much.”

Jon laughed once and held her impossibly tighter. “I’ve missed you more,” Jon told her.

“I love you,” Jon and Arya said at the same time, and Jon another sob and felt a short, quiet laugh from his little sister vibrate against his neck. 

After several long minutes, Arya pulled away and stood, her head only a few inches higher than Jon’s as he kneeled. She searched his face hungrily and Jon searched her eyes to see if he could still tell what she was thinking. 

“I will always love you,” Jon said, his voice raspier than usual. Arya bit her scabbed lip. “And I will always want you. I will always be home for you. I will never let anyone take you away again, I will never let anyone hurt you.”

“I know you will try your best,” Arya agreed, with such maturity and knowledge in her voice. “A lot has happened. I’ve been trying to come home ever since I left King's Landing.”

“Tell me,” Jon pleaded. “Tell me of what has happened to you since I left for the Wall.”

Arya chewed her lip, worry came to her eyes at once. She glanced around the yard and Jon stood. It was nearly nightfall, and he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his night talking with Arya. She would have to reunite with Sansa, who he was sure trying to sleep in her chambers with Ghost at her side. She had not slept well the last two nights and exhaustion had plagued her today, he knew. Jon knew he should take Arya to Sansa, but he selfishly led her to his own chambers, their father’s old chambers.

Arya walked around the room with her hands on the stone walls and looked out the window for a long while. Jon told her food was being brought up for her to eat, and he saw her nod as she continued her own tour around the room.

“Is it weird?” She asked quietly. “To be in their room?”

“It was at first,” he answered. “But it’s not so much now. It’s… hard for Sansa. This was the room that she had to share with Ramsey. I plan to redo the stone, of course, like any other room that is now difficult for Sansa to be in, but this will probably be the last that is changed.”

“He raped her, didn’t he,” Arya asked, with a noticeably murderous tone in her voice. She turned toward Jon now, her grey eyes hard and narrowed.

“And beat her.”

“He’s dead now, then? How did he die?”

The corner of Jon’s mouth twitched up. “After the Battle, I followed him to the courtyard to finish him with one on one combat. He was nearly dead from me beating him when I caught glance of Sansa, I had promised her that she could finish him in the end. And so Sansa fed Ramsay to his dogs.”

Arya smiled. “I’m happy that she understands things need to be done by men and women now. And Ramsay, he killed little Rickon? That is what’s going through the Riverlands.”

“Aye. It started the Battle,” Jon answered thickly. “Ramsay had Rickon run to me, and shot him through with an arrow when I could almost reach him.”

There was silence between the two for a long moment and Arya moved to the fireplace to heat her hands. “Has there been word on Bran?”

“My friend Sam saw him beyond the wall years ago.”

Arya seemed surprised. “Beyond the wall?”

“Aye. He wouldn’t return with Sam, though. I had a dream the night Sansa and I retook Winterfell. He spoke to me in the dream, and I believe it was him… somehow. He said that he would be back before the Great War.”

“And when is that supposed to happen?” Arya asked feverishly.

Jon shrugged. “I don’t know. White walkers are growing in numbers, and winter is here. I need more men, and then we will pitch at the wall and fight there to keep them from entering the North.”

Arya opened her mouth but there was a knock at the door. Jon let the young maid in and she placed a tray of food down on the small table near the window. She smiled at Arya and told her, “I am happy you are home, m’lady.”

Arya smiled kindly. “I am happy to be home as well. Thank you for the meal.”

The woman left and Arya muttered something under her breath about being called a lady. She sat down and began to eat the food immediately. Jon sat across from her and watched her. He knew that he had missed Arya more than Robb and Winterfell put together, but as he saw her now, he realized that he had missed her more than he had even imagined. 

She ate without saying anything, and Jon did not speak until she was done. 

“When was the last time you had eaten?”

“Three days ago,” Arya said. Jon winced. “I tried to only stop for my horse. Word is that you’re leaving to meet the Dragon Queen. I wanted to see you before you were gone.”

Jon smiled sadly. “I am so happy that you did return home before I leave,” he told her quietly. “I will be leaving before the new moon starts. But Arya, what has happened with you? There hasn’t been any word of you since you were in King's Landing. I was told you were seen with the Brotherhood Without Banners, and with the Hound, and then I was falsely told that you were to marry Ramsay.”

Arya seemed nervous, Jon realized. She looked at his eyes with her own matching gray ones but they belonged to the scared little girl he had left years ago, not to the woman that was sitting in front of him. Her eyes were wet and she returned to chewing her lip, looking into the fire.

“Arya -”

“I’ve done terrible things, Jon,” Arya said. “I don’t regret them, but I’ve done terrible things… I’ve always told myself that… that none of the things I’ve done would matter to you, that you would want me no matter what. But I don’t know if you really would.”

“Don’t play stupid,” Jon said. “I’ve killed men, Arya, I’ve killed women and children. I’ve betrayed my brothers, I’ve broken laws. I do not care what you have done. You are my little sister, I love you, I have wanted you in my arms for years and I finally have you, I will not turn against you. I won’t ever, I promise.”

Arya tore her eyes away from the fire to look at her brother. Tears were running down her face and she wiped them away, closed her eyes, and took in a large breath to steady herself.

Jon moved his chair next to Arya so that their arms were now touching, and he took her small hand in his own. “Tell me every terrible thing you did and let me love you anyway.”

Little Arya that Jon loved and missed so much over the years looked up at him and a small smile played at her lips, her eyes still glossy, but she no longer looked scared. She told her older brother about everything that had happened since she, their father and Sansa had left Winterfell all those years ago. There was times throughout her tale that he had questions, that he was bewildered, and that he was terrified. Arya pushed through everything, sometimes forcing herself to tell Jon information. By the time that Arya finished, it was the early hours of the morning. Jon hugged her securely and kissed her head. He told her that he loved her, and lead her to Sansa’s room so that Arya could sleep with her sister and wake with her in the morn. 

He stood outside of the door long enough to hear Sansa’s shrieks and cries over Arya’s return. He heard giggles and Arya’s boots fly off and hit the door before she jumped into the bed. A smile graced his face, and he felt his eyes burn as he breathed deeply for a few moments. This was the happiest Jon has been in a very long time, and he swore to himself that he would never let his family to be split apart again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think!


End file.
